Pscychology, Sociology
Do Implicit Biases Drive Your Behaviour?
Today’s climate of systemic racism implores us all to search within
I am white. I grew up in a predominantly white community in a small town in western Canada. The one black person in town was a child adopted by a white family. Everyone knew his first name whether they knew the family or not. That’s how “word” travels in small towns.
There was no diversity in my life. When my family moved to the city of Calgary, I got my first taste of diversity at school. Then, I was basically the only white kid in my class who made friends with non-white kids. Most non-white Canadians in Calgary at that time were either Asian or Indigenous.
Childhood Experiences With Diversity
My first two experiences with indigenous people, in 3rd and 4th grades, were very positive. First, I made friends with Leslie. I still remember her long flowing hair, her warm glowing smile, and her love of candy! We would go to the candy store together after school.
My second indigenous friend was Sandra. As with Leslie, when I saw Sandra at the start of the school year I automatically gravitated toward her.
Stoic and quiet, she was my new underspoken friend. I realized how underspoken she was when Grandma told me one day that Sandra was a real princess! Her father or grandfather was chief of their indigenous tribe — which made her a princess. They both appeared on the front page of the Calgary Herald one day during Stampede, in full regalia!
At 14, I got my first part-time job, working in a college cafeteria. Now reflecting back, I see a pattern had begun emerging in my behaviour. As I did when I made friends with Leslie and Sandra, I found myself again gravitating toward non-white people. This is how it unfolded.
Diversity at Work in my First Job
I worked on the steam line serving food. Among the many white students who would line up in the cafeteria for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, there were two I regularly enjoyed sharing small talk with. They were both black African.
I remember one year my mom phoned the same college, offering to host Christmas dinner to any students who couldn’t go home for Christmas. We had a student from China join us one year, and a black African student another year. He was one of those nice students I had chatted with in the cafeteria, J.J.
At any given time in my life since then, my friends and acquaintances — if brought together under one roof — would resemble the UN.
These are reasons why I have never seen myself as anyone with a milligram of racial bias. But the raw state of affairs today is such that I am “woke” to the possibility of hidden bias like never before. If I do have any racial bias, though, I suspect I’m biased toward non-white people.
Standing on a Precipice
Our North American society is standing on a precipice right now. A frightening realization is that much of the world has an upsurge in white supremacy. And at least a half dozen countries currently have right wing, bigoted leaders.
Today, passing through the living room I heard on TV about some research that was conducted across Canada. It stopped me mid-step, and I settled in to watch a rerun of Marketplace.
First, social experiments like this were recorded live on camera.
The First Social Experiment
It went like this. A Canadian woman stood on a busy street holding a small pail and a sign. She asked passersby for money to donate to Syrian refugee families.
She appeared dressed in 3 different Islamic styles. One was a long gown, with her head and face uncovered. Another was a long gown, with her head (only) covered. Yet another was a long gown, with both head and face covered.
Researchers set out to measure the degree to which each outfit influenced attitudes by comparing how much money she collected in each outfit. The second outfit — long gown with head covered — was the winner.
The first experiment, part 2 was then launched. This was to see if passersby would step up and help the same woman if they saw a bigot verbally attack her. To do this, researchers staged a series of attacks with an actor.
Each time the woman was ostensibly attacked, at least one passerby soon stepped up to advocate for her. They conducted this experiment in different locations in Canada, and it was affirming to see how good samaritans are everywhere!
The Second Social Experiment
Researchers had 3 men (Asian, black, caucasian) apply for the same rental unit. Producers of Marketplace took this experiment across Canada, to…
- Frederickton, New Brunswick
- Toronto, Ontario
- Regina, Saskatchewan
- Victoria, British Columbia
The comparison of landlord responses revealed their clear bias against non-white applicants.
Implicit Bias Test
After Marketplace showed TV viewers social experiments, they showed us another type of experiment. Producers had volunteers take a test that Harvard researchers developed called the Implicit Association test. They believe it reveals the test takers’ subconscious feelings that may influence the way they relate to people from racial backgrounds other than their own.
Psychologists study implicit social cognition to understand how the human mind automatically manifests biases against certain social groups. One way the data coming out of this type of research is used is in recruitment. The data helps determine how implicit, or subconscious biases influence recruiters decisions in the hiring process.
It can be applied to any type of situation, though. Even just in how people conduct themselves and treat each other in general. But back to the test.
The idea is that the split-second decisions that the test takers make on a keyboard reveals some prejudice. Whether sorting black or brown from white faces, good looking faces from less good looking faces, or connecting the faces with different words, mistakes and hesitations show the big reveal — prejudiced thinking — to test assessors.
Marketplace
Marketplace is a brilliant, investigative consumer TV show that’s been airing in Canada since 1972. It covers a wide range of topics that most people care about. Deep dives into health and safety issues, fraudulent business practices, and more often exposes wrongdoing that puts people at risk.
TV journalist, reporter, and host Wendy Mesley and the rest of the team are effective and thorough in their investigation. The outcome of shows airing is often that wrongs are exposed and righted. According to Wikipedia, for example…
- the illegal dumping and burning of Canadian plastic recycling in Malaysia
- the sale of fake university degrees to Canadian professors and social workers
- violence and neglect in long term care homes
- Google Maps launched a review of the country’s locksmith listings after the identification of dozens of fake listings and reviews
- Market Place’s lab testing found dangerous levels of cadmium in jewelry sold in Canada, and journalists travelled to China to expose how these chemicals end up on Canadian store shelves
- the above episode prompted an investigation by Health Canada and changes in the companies’ suppliers
- international investigation tracking the people behind those annoying fake Canada Revenue scams and tech support scams, leading to a criminal investigation
- journalists gained access to document the arrest of Canadians said to have been working with criminals in India to defraud Canadian victims
My Experience With The Test
I decided to take the test myself before writing this article. The first thing that surprised me was that the test pitted good looking people against less good looking people. Nothing about racial differences.
After having gone through the process, I was found to be biased toward better looking people in a job interview. However, I didn’t clearly understand how to do the task. So the outcome can’t accurately demonstrate my implicit attitudes.
In the end I was told my answers revealed prejudiced thinking. Here, in my opinion, is a fundamental problem with this test. How many other test takers didn’t understand the instructions, went through the tasks anyway, and were assessed as being biased? Our test outcomes are then in the nationwide data bank. And mine, I believe, is misrepresented.
The test is promoted as one which can reveal deep-seated racial bias. But besides the flaw described above, there’s a huge leap from a bias toward good looking people to a racially-based bias.
Final Word
The journey isn’t over. It’s the journey of life itself, so hopefully our journey will be an epic one…and will go on for a long time to come. I’d like to suggest using our responses to the questions we ask ourselves as a roadmap to get to a better understanding of ourselves.
The question of whether we are implicitly biased is, in my opinion, well worth exploring. I can’t recommend the Implicit Association test, based on the shortcomings I described above. But I recommend a lot of quiet reflection.
I gleaned quite a lot by reflecting on values that I learned from my family in childhood, such as in my mom’s Christmas invitation to those college students and my childhood friendships with Leslie and Sandra. Also by reflecting on values that I’ve demonstrated as an adult, such as the many friendships and other relationships I’ve had with wonderful people of all racial backgrounds.